Statue of Liberty 2009

NYC Swim ( nycswim.org ) invited me to shoot their first Liberty Island Swim event. They've been working with authorities for 4 years to get clearances and permissions to host a group swim in the highly regulated waters at the island's perimeter. We had been discussing the KAP idea for a few weeks, and one week before the event they finally got the U.S. National Park Service to agree to let me do kite aerial photography on their island.

On the day the day of the event we started early. The swim event ferry would get the group to the island around 6:45AM. We would need to have everything wrapped up before the tourists arrived at 9:00. Winds were light and actually came to a complete stop during the race. This shot was taken after the finish and just minutes before heavy rain.

My rig had just recently been outfitted with a GS-1 Gyro Servo ( dunehaven.com ) on the tilt axis. The impact was amazing. Even as the camera dangled around, the video previews provided by the DuneCam system were fairly consistent from one view to the next. With an awkward subject like this, the system came in very handy. Thanks to Scott Armitage for the servos and quick turn around on video cables.

And thanks to Morty and Mia for getting me out there! And to Marc ( flickr.com/marcberry ) for waking up at 4:30AM and helping with the gear.